Miguel Indurain, winner of five consecutive tours, has just retired from the international limelight and Spain already has a new sports hero: in the first round of the Open of Australia, a dramatic four-hour match, the Majorcan tennis player Carlos Moyá (photo) had already eclipsed the German Boris Becker, ostensible winner. This event has only rekindled the controversy surrounding Becker's decision not to participate in the preliminary round to the Davis Cup between Spain and Germany to be held between the 7th and the 9th of February in Cala Ratjada, Mallorca. After being defeated by Spain's new tennis star, the German champion said: "Ten brand new Moyás would have been waiting for me in Cala Ratjada, too".
Neither the completion of the new courts nor the new grandstands to be built within the next few days are enough to quiet the rumours behind the scene: the 7,100 tickets (from 4.000 Ptas/day, Tel. +34/971/70.60.07, Fax 47.09.71, ask for Irene) which had been selling like hotcakes are no longer so hot since it's out in the open that the German star will not be participating. Mallorca's deal of the century, according to hotel owner Ignacio Esteve (see Mallorca News No. 18) threatens not to be all that it's been played up to be. 
But all is not lost. Although Niki Pilic, manager of the team, maintains that "Becker stands by his decision now that it has been disclosed publicly", the German Tennis Association (DTB) doesn't quite believe it. After Becker's hasty elimination in Melbourne Press manager of the DTB, Jens-Peter Hecht stated "a tough effort cannot be a reason to give up".
Be that as it may, both players are paid 2,6 million marcs a year to participate in the Davis Cup, not to mention the pressure from the owner of the UFA advertising rights who has just transferred 125 million marcs to the Association as stipulated in a five-year contract. But if Becker doesn't participate even the television broadcasting remains to be seen. Only two weeks away from the event, sports department coordinator of Germany's national television channel ARD, Mr Wollscheid declares "we are still in the race".

Incredible but true: two of Mallorca's leading projects are about to be completed. Both the Sóller Tunnel and the new airport terminal are scheduled to be inaugurated on February 15th.
The first Spanish charters and some of the airport shops intend to move into the new terminal -- which has cost 40,000,000 million Ptas -- in mid-February. And the super new terminal will be functioning fully by a week before Easter, the beginning of high tourist season on the island. Next, the old building will start being remodelled.
While the airport project has gone relatively smoothly, the "project of the century", the Sóller Tunnel (with a delay of over six years), continues to be in the headlines. Aside from ongoing lawsuits for illegal financing and suspicions of corruption, a new threat now looms which could end up in yet another lawsuit. The construction company, FCC, Fomento de Contratas y Construcciones, intends to continue charging 520 Ptas toll beyond the established period and until the year 2015, claiming that the costs of the project have been higher than expected. Quite a price to pay for 5 km and a 48% increase over what had been stipulated in 1988!

His adventure of going around the world in a globe lasted two days, ending in an emergency landing in the Algerian desert. However, he seems to be a little luckier with his hotel project in Mallorca: the newspaper El Día de Mundo has published that the Banyalbufar council and British multimillionaire Richard Branson (Virgin, La Residencia; s. illustration) seem to have come to an agreement. The luxury hotel will be a little larger than had been originally planned on the condition that the additional bungalows will not be built. Mayor Antoni Mora is visibly satisfied and declares: "We've saved the landscape AND we'll have a super luxury hotel".